Head of Nefertiti embroiled in German court ruling on Egyptian artifacts

The legal complexities surrounding the University of Leipzig's Egyptology collection could become even more tangled, it seems.

Last week a German court ruled that the University of must hand over its collection of 150 Egyptian artifacts to the Jewish Claims Conference.

Among the objects are the Ebers Papyrus, a medical papyrus purchased by George Ebers, and a small limestone head of the queen Nefertiti, wife of the monotheistic king Akhenaten.

The University of Leipzig bought the ccollection in 1936 from a Jewish professor, Professor Georg Steindorff. The court said Steindorff had been forced to sell his collection under Nazi rule for a value far below its actual worth.

Now Leipzig residents are angry the museum would be losing its collection, and under this pressure the Leipzig University is to appeal against the court ruling.

Meanwhile, Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities, has sent an official letter to the Jewish Claims Conference - an umbrella alliance of 24 international Jewish organizations seeking compensation for Holocaust victims and their descendants - demanding restitution of these objects, and threatened to file a lawsuit against it before German and international courts if the JCC did not comply.

Georg Steindorff had held Leipzig's Egyptology chair and emigrated from Nazi Germany to the US where he died in 1951. The professor had collected the antiquities on research trips.

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See: University must surrender collection of Egyptian antiquities

Nefertiti bust: Egypt renews call for its return

Egypt is stepping up its campaign to ensure the iconic bust of Nefertiti, currently a prized exhibit in Neues Museum in Berlin, is returned to Egypt.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s minister for antiquities, is to send an official letter to the German government requesting the return of the Nefertiti bust.

German archeologists, led by Ludwig Borchardt, discovered the Nefertiti bust in 1912 in Amarna. The Egyptians maintain that the artefact was taken to Germany illegally. Dr Hawass said the letter he will include all documents confirming Egypt’s ownership of the bust.

Egypt would like the bust to exhibited in the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

“These documents are a statement to the whole world that the Nefertiti bust belongs to Egypt and not Germany,” Hawass said.

The Nefertiti bust is ranked first on a list of five important objects currently abroad that Egypt wants returned.

The others are the Rosetta Stone (British Museum, London); the statue of Hemiunnu, architect of the Great Pyramid (Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hilesheim); the Dendara Temple Zodiac (the Louvre, Paris); and the bust of Kephren's pyramid builder Ankhaf (Museum of Fine Arts in Boston).

Hawass has told reporters that an ancient Egyptian statue, illegally smuggled out of the country will return from Switzerland as well as the Ka Nefer mummy mask from the United States. This could happen next week.

 Ludwig Borchardt 

The Ka Nefer mummy mask: this could be returned to Egypt soon.

Germany refuses to return Nefertiti to Egypt

Berlin has no plans to return a 3,300-year-old bust of the ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti to Egypt, the head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, said on Monday.

"The foundation's stance over the bust's return has not changed. Nefertiti has been and remains the best Egyptian ambassador to Berlin," Parzinger said.

Read more: RIA Novosti

Egypt asks German museum for Nefertiti bust

Egypt's supreme council of antiquities has asked Berlin's Neues Museum to return a priceless painted limestone bust of Nefertiti, the ancient Egyptian queen renowned for her beauty.

The treasure has been in the possession of the museum since its discovery in 1912 by a German archaeologist. The exquisite bust underscores the ancient Egyptian's understanding of realistic facial proportions and in fact is credited with making Nefertiti famous world wide. It also sealed her renown as a great beauty and is one Egypt's most well known images. 

Nefertiti, lived from 1370-1330 BC, was queen and wife to Pharaoh Amenhotep IV and mother-in-law to pharaoh Tutankhamun and had six known daughters.

Read more: Sify News

Egypt's antiquities chief says government asking Berlin to return Nefertiti bust
The Canadian Press

Egypt: Supreme Council of Antiquities asks German museum for Nefertiti bust
AndKronos.com

Egypt officially requests return of ancient Nefertiti bust
Deutsche Welle

A forgotten female pharaoh comes to life

If Richard Wilkinson has his way, one day the Egyptian Queen Tausert will be as well-known as Nefertiti. For the last six years, Wilkinson and the other archaeologists in his University of Arizona Egyptian expedition have been excavating Tausert’s mortuary temple in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
Source: University of Arizona:

http://alumni.arizona.edu/communications/article/601